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Day 15, Explosion

Just another normal day seemed to be flying by me as we walked casually to the store as we often did for fun. In a small town like ours there isn't much interesting to do, and none of it was free. So, instead of going to the movies or the mall or anything like that, we enjoyed going to the store and thinking about what we would like to get some day or just think about what we would do if we had this or that. We had nearly arrived, only a few blocks to go when we heard it. It was so far off it was barely an echo but our sharp ears caught it none the less. It was an interesting sound, almost like a gun shot. Since it was so far off we could tell it was something much bigger. It was coming from across town from the direction of the potato factory. Quickly we turned around as this was obviously more interesting than going to the store to window shop and wonder what things were. Then there was smoke rising from where the sound had been only moments before. Was it a fire? Maybe something exploded? We looked at each other in wonder and started walking faster towards the source of the smoke. Soon police sirens sounded behind us and zoomed passed. There were more than police though, the fire department and ambulances also whizzed by us at amazing speeds. I was shocked none of them crashed as cars sped to the sides of the road to avoid the oncoming barrage of siren wielding vehicles. We stopped to watch the parade of blue and red lights in shock and wonder. This was not normal, especially not in this town. We had had several bad accidents and fires but never this many responders, not this fast at least. We began to run now, there wasn't that far left to go and we were sure we could make it in time to find out what was going on. In only a few minutes we arrived on the scene and oh what a scene it was. There was smoke and fire everywhere. The area had been taped off and a crowd had already gathered. We could see almost nothing as far as details but what we did see was nearly horrifying. Out of curiosity we worked our way to the front to see what had happened. The potato factory had exploded, not the whole thing but a good portion of it. The fire fighters had already done a good job putting out the fires and there were only small pockets left. We asked one of the officers what happened and he said that according to what they had heard so far, someone made a potato battery that went horribly wrong. Again shock crossed our faces, how could a potato battery do this much damage. We continued looking on and noticed only one person was being loaded into an ambulance. We then asked the officer who he was and if there was anyone else who was being taken to the hospital. He said that the guy being loaded was the idiot who made the battery and no one else was injured. I almost laughed at that. Soon the commotion ended and we were off again to find more adventure back at the store.